Mastodon: Use recipients name and handle in DM column instead of the one from the last message
Motivation
Since 2.6.0 the DM column shows the DMs by thread. This is great and was greatly needed imo. However some people pointed out that it gets a bit cumbersome to look for a specific thread, especially when you were the last one to reply every time, then your name and handle is show for every thread. Moreover having the profile picture of the person you're talking to and your name associated with it is a bit disturbing.
Recognizing thread by profile picture might be tricky as well as the users might change their profile picture often or might have similar profile pictures.
Pitch
I think it would be good to have the name and handle of the recipients always displayed in the thread instead of the one from the last person who sent a message on this thread.
kit-ty-kate
All 9 comments
At the very least, your name should not be shown, because it is already implied that you are a participant; otherwise, you would not be receiving the message! Conversations should only show the names of other participants.
trwnh
on 2 Nov 2018
Except on your messages, right ?
lapineige
on 2 Nov 2018
Except on your messages, right ?
No, the point of this feature request is precisely to not have your own name anywhere in the DM column. It's pointless.
kit-ty-kate
on 2 Nov 2018
But when it's your own message, it's very confusing to see another avatar (and not your avatar somewhere), as you can believe it's not your message.
lapineige
on 2 Nov 2018
But when it's your own message, it's very confusing to see another avatar (and not your avatar somewhere), as you can believe it's not your message.
The avatar is already not yours and it would be even more confusing to distinguish between each conversations.
The point is that the DM column is now a list of conversations not messages.
kit-ty-kate
on 2 Nov 2018
To be fair if I look at my DMs in TweetDeck, it also shows not-my-name even if the last message shown is mine. So I guess it could be expected to work this way.
Gargron
on 2 Nov 2018
I never used TweetDeck or any equivalent tool so I can't really relate, but I find it confusing this way (especially, but not only, when you're used to the old behaviour where your DM have your avatar next to it) : I can't visually know if it's a new DM or just mine, I've to make the (relatively long in comparison) effort to read the text to understand it, and when I click on my DM the avatar is changing.
Couldn't it be possible to show the recipient(s) avatar(s) as it is now, with our at the bottom to indicate it's a reply ?
lapineige
on 3 Nov 2018
I find it odd as well. Honestly if tweetdeck does it I'd say it's not good there either.
DMs listed as conversations as a feature is very similar to how chat conversations are listed in platforms such as facebook messenger, WhatsApp, Telegram, etc.
Exploring those cases I've found that the usual implementation goes like this: The information of the person you're having a conversation with is always displayed, along with the last message sent in the conversation. If the message was sent by you, then "You: " is prepend to the text. Otherwise, it is implied it was send by the other person.
This is also how Twitter handles DMs on their main platform.
LoVicente
on 30 Nov 2018
I agree with this issue. Conversations as they are presented now initially confused me for a while. I was confused as to why my username and handle were being presented next to the recipient's avatar.
The recipient's name and handle being presented would be more consistent with other chat services, although it's possible for users to misinterpret displayed threads as toots instead, making it look like the recipient has always sent the last message. To solve this, a slight visual change can be introduced in order to differentiate between toots and actual "conversation threads".
I suggest something more akin to how favorites/boosts are presented in the notifications column. Maybe something like this?
(Of course, the boost button shouldn't be there. This is just a quick markup modification that I slapped together.)
(And second thought: that should really say "Conversation with" instead of "In a conversation with". Or just introduce some other change entirely that creates a visual difference between toots and DM threads, because having that above every thread probably takes up too much space in the column. 馃槆)
slice
on 12 Feb 2019
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Most helpful comment
I agree with this issue. Conversations as they are presented now initially confused me for a while. I was confused as to why my username and handle were being presented next to the recipient's avatar.
The recipient's name and handle being presented would be more consistent with other chat services, although it's possible for users to misinterpret displayed threads as toots instead, making it look like the recipient has always sent the last message. To solve this, a slight visual change can be introduced in order to differentiate between toots and actual "conversation threads".
I suggest something more akin to how favorites/boosts are presented in the notifications column. Maybe something like this?
(Of course, the boost button shouldn't be there. This is just a quick markup modification that I slapped together.)
(And second thought: that should really say "Conversation with" instead of "In a conversation with". Or just introduce some other change entirely that creates a visual difference between toots and DM threads, because having that above every thread probably takes up too much space in the column. 馃槆)